After a post on Dot Earth described environmental problems related to a coal-ash landfill in Uniontown, Alabama, state officials challenged many points in the story. The response and story are here: http://j.mp/AlabamaAsh Here is a letter from Black Warrior Riverkeeper challenging the assertions of state officials.

1. January 28, 2015
®
712 37th
Street South
Birmingham, AL 35222
Tel: (205) 458-0095
Fax: (205) 458-0094
edillard@blackwarriorriver.org
www.BlackWarriorRiver.org
Via electronic mail only
Andrew C. Revkin
The New York Times
620 Eighth Avenue
New York, New York 10018
Re: Response to Director LeFleur’s January 22, 2015 Letter about Uniontown, Alabama
Dear Mr. Revkin:
Alabama Department of Environmental Management Director Lance LeFleur’s selective rebuttal
to In Alabama, West Point Cadets Explore Polluted Civil Rights leaves readers with an incomplete and
thus inaccurate view of the environmental justice issues of Uniontown, Alabama. His letter also
exemplifies ADEM’s defensive posture that insists all is well, even though the reality is starkly
different. Rather than focus on ways to help this struggling community today, the Director prefers to
rationalize the status quo.
Despite Director LeFleur’s assertion that ADEM’s handling of coal ash presented “no adverse
environmental impact” for Uniontown, affected residents know better. In 2009, they filed a complaint
and a successful citizen suit against the operators of the landfill. Residents documented numerous health
problems that were attributed to coal ash, including respiratory illness, headaches, dizziness, nausea and
vomiting. In 2013, residents filed a civil rights complaint against ADEM when the Department allowed
the landfill to expand its service area and capacity without providing additional protections in an
environmental justice community where 88 percent of residents are African-American and almost half
live in poverty. The landfill sits only 100 feet from the front porches of some.
Director LeFleur’s correction that the landfill is lined is accurate, but his correction that the
landfill is capped is misleading. Even though it is capped today, that is so because there is no more
Kingston coal ash waste to ship to Uniontown. By 2011, the landfill had all of it, so it could be capped.
Director LeFleur fails to acknowledge that while waste disposal was ongoing there was no engineered
cap in place. Instead, ADEM actually granted an exception to the standard daily cover rule (six inches
of earthen material) and allowed an alternative cover: more coal ash. Thus, coal ash was always
exposed to the elements. Residents continually witnessed ash blowing from the landfill to cover their

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homes, cars, yards, gardens and wash lines in the fine gray-black toxic ash. It was not always
encapsulated or in the “moist state” that the Director’s letter represents. So an engineered cap in place
today in no way addresses the dispersal and deposition of ash around Uniontown that occurred in the
past.
Director LeFleur’s assertion of no ground or surface water impacts is similarly flawed. In 2010,
John Wathen, Hurricane Creekkeeper, filed a complaint with EPA, outlining health threats from the
landfill, which included test results of runoff flowing into residential ditches and nearby creeks which
indicated high levels of arsenic, which is commonly associated with coal ash. Water testing in 2013 by
university professor and biologist Dr. Betsy Dobbins showed elevated levels of arsenic and high
conductivity, also associated with coal ash. While the EPA recommends conductivity of surface water
range from 150 to 500 uS/cm to maintain a good mix of aquatic life, the surface water immediately
adjacent to the landfill showed conductivities over 2,400 uS/cm. Arsenic levels in a fugitive small
stream dripping from the landfill were 25 ppb. These levels were diluted in adjacent surface waters, but
were still elevated over 10 ppb (the drinking water standard) as they flowed through property where
cattle grazed and people rely on well water.
Instead of prompting concern, however, these objective test results prompted no observable
response by ADEM. Whether these test results could represent legacy pollution from the previous ash
dispersal or possible migration of groundwater pollution from the landfill is largely unknown because
ADEM has not conducted a robust water quality testing program to trace causes or assess impacts. In
these circumstances, what you don’t know can definitely hurt you.
But as is evidenced by Director LeFleur’s rebuttal, ADEM is tired of Uniontown and tired of
hearing about Uniontown. On two separate occasions, the Environmental Management Commission,
the appointed board that oversees ADEM, denied requests of several citizens to speak about Uniontown
issues during dedicated public comment periods at its bi-monthly meetings. These citizens wanted to
address the impacts of both the landfill and the Uniontown Lagoon (the community’s wastewater
treatment facility which has been the source of serial sewage overflows and massive failures since at
least 2002). When the Commission was informed that the denials represented not only a failure to
follow EMC regulations, but a potential First Amendment violation, two citizens were allowed to speak
in June 2014. But shortly thereafter, the EMC advertised coming changes to their public comment
process. While these changes have not yet been publicized, it is probably safe to assume that they will
not expand public comment opportunities at ADEM.
Rather than fear public discussion of these important issues and their impacts, we would be wise
to take to heart Professor Goldstein’s lessons to his cadets. The fact that he made an honest mistake
about whether the landfill is lined does not detract from his larger message: despite the gains made by
the civil rights movement, we still have miles to go in places like Uniontown. And to begin this
particular journey, we desperately need help from agencies like ADEM and the EPA.

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Sincerely,
Eva Dillard
Staff Attorney
Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Inc.
Charles Scribner IV
Executive Director
Black Warrior Riverkeeper, Inc.
cc: Lance R. LeFleur, ADEM Director
Mr. Robert J. Goldstein
Distinguished Professor
United States Military Academy at West Point
Lt. Gen. Robert Caslen, Jr., Superintendent
United States Military Academy at West Point
Brig. Gen. John C. Thomson III, Commandant of Cadets
U.S. Military Academy at West Point
Heather McTeer Toney, Administrator
USEPA Region 4